Trenton officials vow crackdown after mother, 3 year old are shot in drive-by

Michael Mancuso/The TimesA Trenton Police officer stands watch at a Passaic Street house, which has a bullet hole in the window, at the scene of an apparent drive-by shooting the previous night that left a mother and her child wounded.

TRENTON – Trenton Mayor Tony Mack vowed a crackdown in the city’s West Ward today following a shooting last night that left a young mother and her 3-year-old daughter wounded in the crossfire.

“When young people cannot go into stores with babies in their arms, there’s something wrong,” Mack said at a City Hall news conference this afternoon.

Mack said he is considering aggressive crime measures such as stop-and-challenges of pedestrians and an anti-loitering campaign to combat growing violence in the area as the calendar moves toward summer.

“I guarantee you that our criminal incidents will be going up in warmer weather as school gets out,” Capt. Fred Reister said.

Reister and acting Capt. Steve Varn, who heads the detective bureau, said they have few leads on the shooters in last night’s incident and are unsure of the motive for the crime.

According to police, the mother and child were innocent bystanders who happened to step into the line of fire after leaving a corner store around 8:45 p.m. Numerous rounds were fired from a car traveling on Passaic Street near the intersection with Calhoun Street, then fled the area, police said.

“From what I understand, the crime scene was fairly extensive on Passaic Street,” Reister said.

The mother, a 21-year-old city woman who police did not name, was shot once in the buttocks, while her child was hit once in the right arm. The daughter received additional injuries to her face when she was either dropped by her mother or fell after being struck by the bullet, police said.

Mack visited with the anguished family members last night.

“I spoke to them at length, I let them know how concerned I was this took place,” Mack said.

“We’ve identified some hot spots in the city, and that’s definitely one of them,” Mack said of the West Ward.

“There’s a lot of conflict going on out there, unfortunately, and that’s largely due to the drug trade,” Reister said.

Detectives were searching for witnesses this afternoon, and hoping citizens who saw the shooting would come forward.

“We have two victims, and other than that we don’t have much information,” Reister said.

Video from several cameras in the area is under review, but apparently only captured the aftermath of the shooting, Varn said. A police camera one block away from the shooting was not functioning at the time, but the one at Calhoun and Passaic was, police said.

Anyone with information on the shooting is urged to come forward, and can be eligible for a reward of up to $1,000 from Crime Stoppers of Greater Trenton. Police can be reached at (609) 9894170, or the Confidential Tip Line: (609) 989-3663.